Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 48: The presence in the corridor

Belle did not have time to think about the kiss or to do anything after he gave her permission to go and get the ring outside. At first, she couldn’t believe her ears. She looked at him, and he repeated it and then said, "You don’t want it anymore?" with an arched brow.

She never knew she was capable of smiling at him and bowing in gratitude, and the moment he opened the door for her, she dashed out of it without looking back. She knew her way to the garden as she had studied the path and corners they had used to reach it.

Her dress was wet, and she had no cloak to keep her warm in the cold weather. All she could think about was the ring she would take and return to its owner one day. She dashed past Rav, who looked startled at the fact that she was running down the stairs without even being careful.

Rav watched her with a frown and was tempted to go and see where she was running to, but then he decided to go and see what she was running from upstairs first. He would have been worried had he not heard the excited thud of her heart and seen the smile on her face when she passed him. He made his way up, and before he could pass her chamber to go to his master’s, he found the door ajar and sensed Rohan’s presence inside.

Peeking his head into the room, he saw Rohan standing nonchalantly by the open French window with his hands folded behind his back as he watched something below. That made Rav clear his throat before stepping into the cozy chamber to report to his master.

"My Lord, I saw the lady running out just now. Did something happen?" he asked carefully as he walked to the window to see what his master was staring at below, but there was nothing. He frowned as he thought Rohan was having one of those spell moments where he would blank out of reality and stare at something unseen until he was tapped out of it. He was about to tap him out like he usually did when he saw a small figure dash into view, causing the master to chuckle softly all of a sudden.

So he was staring to wait for his wife to show? Rav thought to himself as he noticed the human arrive below, her blonde hair in disarray, panting as she began to look around the grounds as if she were searching for something there. He could see she was shivering, as the dress she wore, which was open at the back, was not enough to shield her from the cold that always descended on Nightbrook after any rain, even if it were just a drizzle.

What was she looking for in the Dead Garden, and why was his master watching so intently? Rav wondered with a frown on his face.

Nobody was allowed into the Dead Garden, but Rohan had allowed the human into it not once but twice now. This chamber had the view of the forbidden garden because it was Rohan’s in the past, and he watched his plants and trees from up here. Rav could not help but wonder what the human was searching for as she went down on her hands and knees without caring about the wet grass and puddles, as if to look carefully.

"Isn’t she adorable, Rav? Look at her, so serious about finding the ring I tossed away last night, after I told her to fetch it," came Rohan’s amused voice, filled with mirth, his lips pulled up. And Rav realized something the human searching outside had failed to realize before she ran out to get something the master had tossed away.

"It’s not there, is it?" Rav asked as he saw how desperately the lady was looking and moving her fingers across the grass as if the ring was hiding between the blades. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for her for believing the vampire.

Rav heard Rohan laugh softly. "She needed a distraction, and I gave her one. She has liquid in her eyes, and what better way to give her a distraction than to go searching for something that isn’t there? She’s too naive to believe I would give that scrap of silver back to her," he said with a tsk as he watched his wife below the window, not giving up, and that made his amusement slowly begin to fall as he realized she liked the human so much to not give up easily on looking for something he gave her.

Rav would have stopped the lady had he known what she was running out to do because he knew how his master would never give back anything he had deemed worthless and tossed away.

The drizzle of rain began to increase to a downpour, and still, the human wasn’t giving up, her figure blurring in the downpour.

"My Lord, it’s not good for a human to be in the rain for this long. She might catch a cold," Rav said with a tone of worry, as he knew his master had little to no knowledge about humans, whom he did not care about and would never bother to understand the risks to their health.

Belle, desperate to search for the exact location of the ring, did not want to give up, even though the pouring rain was making her search difficult. It wasn’t every day that one got lucky enough to be granted what they wanted in a world like this. If she gave up now, she might never have the chance to come here and get to keep the ring, and with her husband’s permission, she would even be able to wear it again.

Though she had not expected he would ever allow her to go and get the ring, she did not waste time letting him change his mind before she ran here blindly. And now that she was certain she had searched every corner where she swore she had seen the ring lying when they walked by, she was starting to doubt if it was really there.

The pouring rain was so cold it was biting down on her back fiercely, causing her teeth and bones to quiver uncontrollably. The rain would increase and decrease at the same time, and when it decreased again, she stood up on her feet, dragging her heavy dress up with her with so much difficulty to look up at her chamber window. That was when she saw Rav looking down at her.

Not only Rav, but also her husband, who held out his hand through the window as if to show her something. She squinted against the little drops of water.The distance from the top to the ground was great, but she could make out what he held in his fist even from down here.

The ring necklace! He had it all this time she was looking for it down here and had only played her for a fool! He had lied to her about going down to take the ring when he knew it wasn’t there to begin with!

He smirked down at her like the devil he was, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone from the window. Belle’s fists clenched tightly as a burning sensation rose in her throat, making it hard for her to swallow. With the little dignity left in her, she gathered her dress and began to walk back towards the castle, shivering out of her skin and mad at herself for believing that a man like him would be honest and give her back something he had insulted. She should have seen through the smile on his face when he told her he was in the mood for generosity.

Rohan Dagon had no generosity and kindness in his body! freewēbnoveℓ.com

When she walked into the castle, Belle did not even care that her wet dress was leaving a wet trail in her path and that the servants would have to clean up after her mess. She walked up the stairs quickly in hopes of catching him still in her chamber and telling him what a heartless devil he was and that she would never believe a word he said again. But unfortunately, by the time she got there, the chamber was empty with no sign of him, with the door left ajar like he had just left.

Clenching her teeth in anger, she turned to go and look for him. She was never the kind to lose her composure so soon, but this time, she was mad and wanted to confront him about it, a stupid action it might seem, but she wanted not only to confront him but to demand her ring back!

Belle did not know where his chamber was or in what direction Rohan had gone, but she followed down the dim corridor of her chamber as she knew he could only have gone that way. If he had gone down the stairs, she would have seen him.

She was too mad to care that there was no torch or lamp lit in the corridor. The only light in her path was muted, and it came from the high-colored glass windows, where lightning flashed and thunder rumbled and seemed to shake the glass.

All the chambers she passed were either locked or left open into empty, darkened rooms, yet Belle did not give up her search for her husband’s chamber or where he might have gone after leaving her room.

However, one’s anger could only last so long, especially when one wasn’t used to feeling such strong emotions or wanting to confront and lash out. Her anger began to slowly evaporate as quickly as it had come when she found no sign that anyone had walked down this corridor or that anyone had been there in a while.

Her pace began to slow as the corridor stretched out in front of her, and the more she walked, the darker it was getting. The weather was already looking like twilight outside and the inside like night. Without her anger driving her, she realized how cold she was and how stupid she was to think she could go and demand her ring back from that devil after what had happened between them in the chamber before he distracted her with the ring.

He had kissed her! With that realization came the blushing heat that made her stop in her tracks. She would be dead before she confronted him now after recalling the sensation of the kiss and how he had stroked her hair so carefully when she foolishly cried. That was embarrassing and stupid of her to give in to the kiss so easily.

Hissing and fighting the urge to slap herself and scold herself for losing and getting drawn into something as foolish as a kiss from the devil of her husband, she turned on her heels to go back to her chamber with the hopes of never having to look at him again. But then, the moment she began to walk, she had the craziest feeling that she was being followed and that someone was trying to match her steps from behind in a way that sent a chill of cold down her spine.

Belle stopped, clenched her fists, and then turned around, but she was taken aback to find that there was no one but the long, dark empty corridor. She told herself she had imagined the presence and resumed walking, faster this time. Yet, she still felt like she was being followed, and the weight of the other person made the floor creak. Her heart began to beat faster, just as her pace did.

Just to make sure one last time that it was the echo of her own steps giving the illusion of being followed, she turned around once more. But she should have known better than to do that because this time, she saw something she had not seen the first time.

The corridor was dimmed to almost darkness, but the lightning that flashed every now and then illuminated it, and when it flashed, she saw a dark figure standing with a long hooded big cloak, staring at her as if waiting for her to start walking so it could follow her again.

"R-Rav?" she called, as he was the only one who wore cloaks. Only, this cloak looked nothing like the one he had handed to her husband. But when there was no answer and the cloaked figure remained standing there without any movement, Belle’s instincts told her to run.

Whoever that was, it was not her husband or Rav, because when she blinked, the figure was gone. She turned on her heels and began to run toward her chamber, little whimpers of fear escaping her lips as she ran.

She did not stop until she reached her chamber and slammed the door shut behind her as if to shut out whatever ghost had been following her. She was stepping away from the door backwards when she heard a voice from behind her that made her almost jump out of her cold skin.